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An Update on the "Walk A Mile In Her Shoes" Contest

Blog Posted:3/27/2014 3:25:00 PM

First of all, let me thank all of you who have participated.

I have read all 35 entries into this contest and 25 have been passed along to Round 2.

I do not let everyone win. There are 25 worthy poems that I will rank from 1 - 10. I do not award multiple winners - this is a contest, after all. That means 15 poems that I thought good enough to make it to Round 2, will not be ranked in the end. And, once again, please be reminded, this is just the opinion of one, simple, rather average man.

What separates Poem #1 from Poem #2 and so on, can come down to simple mistakes made in your poem. I noticed some really terrific poems that have some frustrating errors in them. Please, if you are concerned about your placement in this contest, go back and double check your poem. There are some with minor errors that may impact your placement. When deciding between two or more poems with equal merit, those poems without errors will rank better than those with errors.

You all did a fantastic job in writing on this very tough topic. I have found that reading these poems was also very tough due to the subject matter and your very descriptive handling of the theme. As a result, I am going to take a few days off before coming back and ranking the poems.

Thank you, once again, for participating in this contest. And good luck with the final rankings.

Joe

Post Comments

Joe,
Thanks for giving us an opportunity to double check. And even if we didn't make the top 25 maybe it was for errors that we can go back and fix. I'm like Andrea.. Too soft and even then it kills me to cut anyone's poem when I see such effort. Also had a poem not make the cut and finish first in another contest. Sometimes we forget it's just us judging these poems. Often lower ranking poems are ones I would have placed higher. It's opinion. But sometimes, as you mention here, it's errors and our goal has to be to improve as artist and that's the real motivation I find in these contest. Thank you sir!

Joe , I wish I could do the way you are doing. IN the end,(usually) I just keep the 25 and place them all. I am a big old softie!!! And even then, a few people get hurt, so what can ya do anyway? And if you don't like mine in this contest, I will just have to accept that it is your opinion!! as you said, you like what you like!! We all have very different taste and this is very apparent to me when I enter one contest and get nothing but another judge might give me a high place with the very same poem in THEIR contest!! It's crazy and it's life!